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Editor: Staff - 2nd July 2006
SINGLE CARD STRATEGY CHALLENGE #2
Welcome to the second installment of the Single Card Strategy Challenge. Let's do a quick recap of the format for the article. The format for these articles will be: • Cover the decks and winner from the previous challenge. • Discuss the basic merits of the chosen card for the article. • Throw out a few combos with the card or ways it can be used. • Perhaps a decklist or two of my own. • A challenge to you to build a decklist that highlights the uses of the chosen card. The card for the last challenge was Bloodbond March. There were several different approaches submitted by the readers. In the end, I chose this deck by Jacob Moriarty (Darkur_Fox) March of the Servitors 6 Island 4 Myr Servitor 4 Glimpse The Unthinkable Sideboard 4 Terror There are some anomalies in the sideboard (I'll get to those in a moment) but the core of the deck is solid. It can do the general Bloodbond March thing by sacrificing creatures to Spawning Pit, but can also do the same with Myr Servitor if you don't have Bloodbond March in play. Arcbound Crusher and Moriok Rigger enjoy the constant recursion of the artifact creatures in the deck, which should be inevitable. Bone Shard can always restart your engine if all copies of an artifact creature hit the graveyard, particularly your Myr Servitors. Glimpse can help fill the yard with your critters (Bone Shard can also help here). Jacob admits that the sideboard is very narrow and is certainly meant for fun (supported by a copy of Research in the deck). Phage and Leveler are for the odd moments when you know your opponent is playing them; cast Glimpse on your opponent to hopefully get their copy into their graveyard, then cast your own copy with Bloodbond March to kill your opponent. He says this works with Eater of Days, but I don't know what the intent is (I admit to not knowing what happens when there are two of these triggers on opposite sides of the table during the same turn). I think Purge is a mistake and is supposed to be another card, as obviously there are no Plains in the deck! I query Dowsing Shaman; Jacob indicates it is to get back Bloodbond March in the case of enchantment removal, but I think Eternal Witness is a much more flexible and effective option. Despite these shortcomings in the sideboard, the main deck stands on its own. Some other decks weren't quite as cohesive, but there were some inspired card choices I didn't mention in my previous article. Survival of the Fittest is fantastic with Bloodbond March; with the mana and a creature card in hand, you can cycle 3 into the graveyard, then cast the last one to bring them all into play. Other choices included Blasting Station with Relentless Rats; Malevolent Awakening; and I also forgot the efficient Withered Wretch in the graveyard control department. Congratulations to Jacob; 3 boosters are on their way! Quirion Ranger This weeks card is Quirion Ranger.
Quirion Ranger is one of my favourite creatures. I tout it as one of the most flexible one-drops of the game, allowing you to do all sorts of tricks. Untapping creatures can be useful for combat or re-using a tap ability of one of your other creatures (especially legends). When is a cost not a cost? As I'm sure you are aware, activated abilities are written in the form “cost : effect”. Each time you want to use the effect, you have to decide whether the cost is worth it. The cost to activate Quirion Ranger is to return a Forest to your hand. In the early game, this can stunt the development of your board. If you start using it on each of your turns, your land base will never grow. If you also use it on your opponents turns, your land base will shrink. Some of the more interesting costs, such as the one on Quirion Ranger, can be made less costly or even used to your advantage. The ‘cost' on Quirion Ranger can be made far more beneficial than the effect. To get around the fact that you will be depleting your mana base, you can use methods to get them into play faster. You can play land search spells like Sakura-Tribe Elder and Kodama's Reach to build up a mana base, but it is probably preferable to have ways to get them from your hand (after you've picked them up off the table) back into play. Exploration, and Azusa , Lost But Seeking are good ways of doing this. Your deck could also be designed to simply run on a low number of lands. As an added bonus, Quirion Rangers ability can also help against land destruction or other adverse effects that might target your Forests. If you are picking up lots of lands (remember you can use this ability each turn, including your opponents), chances are you will be playing a lot of them too, at least 1 per turn. You can take advantage of this by playing other permanents that trigger off lands being played or coming into play. Vinelasher Kudzu is a recent example of a creature that benefits from land being played. Quirion Ranger can not only return the lands to your hand so they can be replayed, he can also untap the angry plant after attacking for defense. By ensuring that you will be playing lands every turn, you can reap more benefits from Horn of Greed. If you do plan to play multiple lands per turn, Lifegift and Seed the Land can also help keep either your life total steady or your board full of critters. One in the Hand is Worth Two to the Dome My absolute favourite card to pair with Quirion Ranger is Seismic Assault (while I appreciate Quirion Rangers flexibility, admittedly the Seismic Assault deck is the only one I've built). If you don't need the Forests on the board, chuck one back in your hand and then discard it to deal 2, whether to the head or to kill off an annoying creature (and untap one of your creatures to boot). Trade Routes also likes lands back in your hand. Any spell or effect that requires or demands a discard can benefit if you are throwing away a useless resource (a land you no longer need). What? Quirion Ranger has an effect as well? I find the cost of Quirion Rangers ability generally more interesting than it's effect. However, it is good to have some somewhat useful creatures to untap. Playing with either Old Blue or New Red can let you play with various pingers, and untap them for direct damage. With all that untapping, Reveka, Wizard Savant might be playable! Legendary creatures normally come with a burden; if they have a tap ability, you will only ever be able to use it once per turn because of the Legend Rule (Mirror Gallery shenanigans aside. And Sakashima the Impostor. And… well, at least there aren't too many ways around it). A Quirion Ranger will allow you to draw 6 cards per turn from Arcanis The Omnipotent (and more on your opponents turn!). If you've managed to build a sprawl of lands through Explorations et al, being able to activate Ertai, Wizard Adept twice is sure to put a frown on your opponents face. Being able to untap an Initiate of Blood should make it easier to get him flipped into Goka The Unjust, where he should have little problem clearing the board if you have another source of repeatable damage (for example, a Vulshok Sorcerer). Kamahl, Pit Fighter also enjoys similar benefits. Quirion Ranger can also untap mana generators like Priest of Titania… extra bonus as the Ranger itself is an Elf. Quirion Assault Here is a Seismic Assault deck I built that made use of Quirion Ranger, as I remember it (it's probably a few cards off but nothing that changes the core of the deck). 4 Sabretooth Tiger 4 Seismic Assault 24 Basic Lands The creatures I used in my Seismic Assault deck were a bit more mundane than those mentioned earlier in the article, but still used to good effect. Simple Sabretooth Tigers and Voracious Cobras would swing in, able to be untapped for blocking. If something big blocked the Tiger, I could put a land back into my hand, discard how much I needed to Seismic Assault, and let first strike take care of the rest. The Cobras of course are something no-one wants to block or attack into, and I got the best of both worlds. Spikeshot Goblin was my other target, who would often have his power enhanced with Armor of Thorns. This deck has led to my all-time favourite play. Early in the game I had hit with a Sabretooth Tiger, leaving my opponent on 18. I had set up the board with Quirion Ranger and Seismic Assault, and was controlling things with a Spikeshot Goblin (enchanted) and burn. At the end of one of my opponents turn, I did some math. I pinged my opponent with Spikeshot Goblin for 3. I used Quirion Ranger to untap the Goblin and pinged him again. During my draw step, I paid 4 life to Sylvan Library to ‘draw' 2 lands. I pinged my opponent with Spikeshot Goblin, played a Forest , returned it to my hand and untapped Spikeshot Goblin, ping again and discarded my hand to Seismic Assault for a total of 18 since my opponents end step. I loved the way this deck set itself up and then just suddenly won. That said, this deck is not competitive and could do with a serious update (it would lose horribly to Pyroclasm among other things). Life From The Loam is an obvious addition, and the creature base needs some revision. Bonesplitter should also replace Armor of Thorns (although whether an enhancer is even needed is questionable). Now it's time for the deck challenge. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a deck that highlights the abilities of Quirion Ranger. Here are the criteria that I'll be looking at: Focus on doing something and doing it well. The deck should showcase the card. Try to make your deck have the little extra something that puts it above the crowd. If similar decks are entered by more than one person, the first person will have preference. Be quick! The deck should be 60 cards. Sideboard is optional; we're generally looking at kitchen table decks. You may enter multiple decks, but they must all be sufficiently different and showcase the card in a different way. The deck can be any format; you might like to let me know which card pool you have used to build your deck. A deck that uses it's available card pool well matters (I will ignore all decks that include the power 9 just because they can). The deck does not have to be tournament worthy or powerful, it just needs to fit the above criteria. Feel free to fully explore an option I've written about here, or cook up your own concoction for something I've missed. The winner will receive 3 boosters, courtesy of MtgParadise, and will be announced at the beginning of the next article in this series. Entries close 9/7/06 Happy building, and good luck! Michael Howell Forum Name : Bacchus E-Mail gr24159@bigpond.net.au [ Email the Author | Discuss this Article ]
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